No Longer Expectation, Only Invitation

God is here. I am overwhelmed by his character. this is big stuff. let me explain. our guest speaker has been speaking about the character of God, and my eyes have been so opened. our God is a relational God. i wish you could just read my notes! in the garden when adam and eve had sinned for the first time and opened the door for death to show it’s ugly face, God came walking in the garden. He knew where they were, He’s God for crying out loud! but He asked them where they wer, because He was giving them the chance to come to Him in humility and say that they messed up, that He was right and they were wrong. when the sin was out in front of them all, when they were naked and shameful, before He banished them from perfection, He took care of their need. He took away the shame of their nakedness, and clothed them out of His love. He was relating to them out of His great love for them, not out of anger.

when i child is learning to walk and falls down after a few steps, the father does not hit them with a baseball bat and say “you should have tried harder! i’ve been showing you how to walk for too long now! you should know how to do this by now!” a loving father picks up his child, spins him around, throws him in the air and catches him saying, “good job! i am so proud of you! i am so so proud of you!” and then he helps him try again. He is relating out of love, not false expectaions. this is the heart of our God, and oh how i long to know Him more. if studying the word like we did today gave me that much joy, i can’t wait to study it more! He’s not expecting us to love him because He said to, He’s inviting us into relationship with Him. and out of the overflow of that wonderful, perfect relational God, we love Him with all that we are. our speaker told us of a time when his wife was recovering from something and was unable to leave her bed. he gave her a whistle to blow whenevere she needed him. after him running to her at every blow, she looked at him and said, “when you serve me like this, it makes me want to follow you anywhere”. this is how God relates to us. can we be humble, and ask Him to renew our minds and how we perceive His character? we dont have to defend Him to ourselves. He is who He is, and He is God grace who invites us to share life with Him. Amen.